When Worlds Collide
by Carolinagirl3241
Summary: All Catherine wanted was a normal freshman year of college at Chapel Hill, but when she heard Harry Styles was joining her class she knew it would be anything but normal. Nobody was expecting to even talk to Harry but after a bet with her friends she didn't really have a choice. Now she's left confused not sure how to feel. Could this thing with Harry be real? ONE DIRECTION FIC
1. Prologue

A/N: This is just to try it out. Please review! Let me know if this is worth writing anymore.

I've always prided myself on a few things. One: It doesn't matter what others think, just be yourself. Two: (Even though it may seem slightly ironic and maybe even superficial considering number one) Always keep you nails perfectly manicured even if that means doing it yourself. Three: Surround yourself with genuine friends. And four: Always act cool around celebrities. Their egos are big enough; no need to fawn over them. Now I've never actually met a celebrity so the opportunity to put number four to use has never arisen, but I have confidence. One, two, and three however have come in handy the last four years. At boarding school it is easy to lose yourself. Living amid rugged mountains provided a nice landscape, but it also provided the perfect stomping grounds for materialistic rich girls. Not to discount these girls - some of them were my close friends, but getting caught up in the money game was easy.

Maybe I should start this by introducing myself. My name is Catherine. I am 18 years old and after my four years of boarding school I am moving on to bigger and better things. Namely: college. I'm so ready. Reconnecting with old friends attending the same university will be great, and let's not forget my best friends Jake and Brad who, after much deliberation, decided the three musketeers couldn't possibly be separated after four years of high school together. People may think our relationship is weird but it's not some creepy threesome relationship. They are literally my best friends. The good thing about having guy best friends is that they are brutally honest and they mind their own business because they don't want to deal with "girly" issues. The negative? Sometimes they are too honest. And then there are times when they won't mind their own business. That's really where this story begins. Dating has never been their area of specialty. They are more of the one time hook up types. I am the more relationship type. I think that's why it never worked out between either of them or me; it was established early on that it would never work. But even though I know that they aren't relationship experts. They seem to think differently. They believe that they can help me come out of my non-dating slump.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't want anyone to think I'm one of those pathetic girls who cries over the fact that she doesn't have a boyfriend. I don't feel like I need a boyfriend. I had boyfriends and I had a few high school flings, but nothing serious. I just didn't think it was worth it. And for those of you who don't know, boarding school boys are one of two things. They are either nice and therefore friend-zoned from the get go, or they are hot and cocky and therefore undateable by association. At least those were the categories at my boarding school.

I had high hopes for college guys. At some point they have to grow up, right? I figured I could approach college guys with an open mind. I'm not talking about going full slut or anything, but I would just give them the benefit of the doubt. What I didn't know when I made this promise to myself was who would be joining our freshman class. The one and only Harry Styles.


	2. Meeting

As if the idea of college wasn't stressful enough, now there was the worry that you were going to inadvertently get unattractively documented in a tabloid. I decided avoiding anyone and anything that had to do with Harry Styles was a must. Chapel Hill is a big enough school it doesn't seem like it would be too terribly hard to avoid one person in 20,000. Still, Brad and Jake seemed really taken with the idea of being "bros" with a celebrity.

So here I am moving in for my first year of college. Good thing my roommate was my childhood friend Marie, although she too couldn't stop talking about the biggest celebrity to hit campus since the UNC basketball team.

As my parents walked out of my dorm room I took a deep breath. I basically hadn't lived at home for the past four years, but it was still hard to say goodbye to them and accept that this was beginning of a new era. I wanted to just take a moment and let it all sink in, but Marie was insistent that we go and stalk out Harry's dorm. I passed on that "opportunity" and sat down on my bed with my laptop in my lap. Of course I had heard of One Direction, who hadn't? I mean they were known worldwide. Every member of the band had a different persona. Every member of the band also had something that was irresistibly cute about them. The cuteness factor was unfortunate for me. I knew guys like this - true they weren't famous, but they were cute, they knew it, and they let everyone else know that they knew it.

Of course I wanted to meet a celebrity, but if I was going to meet a member of One Direction I don't think I would choose Harry. He was categorized as the typical womanizer. Everybody talked about how much he loved to flirt. That was the last thing that I needed. First of all let me not overlook the fact that I am assuming he would even want to get to know me. That is a ridiculous assumption anyway. Second of all if we did meet I won't pretend that I could actually stick to my rules. I always dreamed that my first famous encounter would be with a girl because then at least there wouldn't be the attractiveness factor holding me back from having an actual personality. I'm naturally shy. I'm shy with anybody, but guys are the worst. If I find them attractive in the least I literally cannot speak. It's an embarrassing flaw, but I'm working on it.

The first two weeks of school flew by. The classes were huge, averaging a few hundred people. I had met a few people, but all in all it was a bit overwhelming. I could take a guess that Harry was in my psych class since there was always a constant circle of girls around a specific seat, but I never ventured to check it out seriously. School, school, and more school were on my mind. I probably seem like a total loser to you right now, but I am an aspiring business major and it's pretty competitive. I don't have time to worry about my social life.

But everyone has their weaknesses right? Brad and Jake called me last night and insisted that I come to this frat party. Now partying isn't really my thing. At 18 I've only been drunk twice which may seem normal, but at boarding school I was considered extremely malnourished in the alcohol department. It didn't take much convincing to get Marie to agree to come with me. Two weeks at school and we were still basically inseparable. Marie was big into dressing up; she practically begged me to wear a dress with her, but that's just not me. Now I am preppy; actually I'm preppy beyond compare, but in terms of going to hangout with people I would rather just wear cutoff jean shorts. So there I stood next to Marie in her cute floral cotton dress, wearing my cutoff jean shorts, a flowy tank top and sandals. We walked across campus to the frat house; you could hear the music blaring from three blocks away and we both secretly prayed the cops wouldn't bust the party. We looked at each other one last time doing a quick hair and makeup check and then prepared to step over the house's threshold.

I took a deep breath as we walked into the house. The house smelled like a typical boy house. It smelled sweaty and then sickeningly sweet (most likely due to the amount of perfume that must have been circulating around the room). It's funny how some girls think that making themselves smell like prostitutes makes them more attractive, but hey whatever works for ya I guess.

As we walked through the door I realized it was going to be a fight to find anybody that I even remotely knew; the house was packed. I gave Marie a nod before we headed separate ways. She was on the search for cute guys and our friend Megan who was supposed to meet us here, and I was on the search for Brad and Jake they only owed it to me to at least show up since they were the ones who convinced me to come in the first place. As I pushed my way into the main room I spotted Jake and Brad playing an intense game of beer pong with a whole slew of personal cheerleaders just waiting to congratulate the winners. I smiled at the thought of it. This would literally be the best night of their lives if they won meaning it would be the most awkward night of MY life since they would clearly be too busy to babysit. It came down to the last few shots and sure enough I watched as my best friends pulled out a win. You would've thought that they had won an Olympic medal with their reactions. Girls jumping everywhere just trying to get a hand on them as they jumped for joy and wrapped each in the biggest bro hug I've ever seen. I realized after about 30 seconds that they were not going to be free to hangout for at least an hour. Normally I would've been ticked, but whatever they should enjoy this victory.

I nudged my way through the crowd once again, ending up near this fold up table full of solo cups. Beside the table there were two huge bins full of this red looking juice. Deciding that I wasn't going to let my solitary state totally ruin this party because, apart from the abnormal amount of people, it's not like it didn't have potential. Now I just needed to locate Marie and Megan so I didn't look like a total loner. I grabbed a solo cup and dunked it in the juice. I had always heard about this drink, everyone at home called it jungle juice, I couldn't wait to try it. I took a sip and everything I had imagined was true. It tasted exactly like kool-aid. I knew this could be a problem if I wasn't careful so I took another sip and spun around to search for familiar faces.

I felt the impact before I realized what had happened. My drink went flying and I rammed into the hard body located directly in front of me. Unfortunately my drink didn't fly far enough and ended up spilled right behind me so when I tried to back up I slipped, fell, and landed on my butt right in the middle of the puddle of the bright red liquid. Mortified is not a strong enough word to express how I was feeling, and that was all before I even looked up to see who I'd unintentionally ran in to.

As I sat there on the ground I heard buzzing all around me. Different people were screaming song lyrics and some were just screaming. I heard a mixture of laughing and of course the distant sound of crying (because it wouldn't be a party with the sad drunkie). I heard a voice saying "oh my gosh I'm so sorry are you alright?" Great, I thought. It would've just been easier if this guy had just walked away, at least less awkward if I could think of this faceless figure as being a jerk instead of the guy and stuck around to watch me wallow in my misery and puddle of jungle juice.

I looked up just enough to see an outstretched hand waiting for my grasp. I flicked my hand a few times trying to rid it of the sticky juice that was now drying in red splotches on my legs. I quickly decided it was a lost cause and accepted the hand to help me up. As I stood I quickly took inventory of my appearance. Luckily my jean shorts were on the darker side so even though I could feel the sticky wetness on my legs, in the dark they looked perfectly normal. My tank on the other hand was now a tye dye of red splatter. Realizing there was no use in freaking out about my outfit I tried to shake off my embarrassment. I decided the only thing that I could do to recover from this situation was to apologize profusely and thank this mystery guy for not leaving me there to sit alone on the floor. I looked up and my breath caught in my throat. There he was. I was standing face to face with Harry Styles. Not that I had planned on meeting him, but I had this definitely would not have been the dream situation.

"I..I'm so sorry", I managed to stutter, "I hope I didn't splash you or anything" I grimaced at my word choice realized that maybe not having a personality was a better option than being a complete weirdo.

"I'm fine but what about you? You took kind of a hard fall. I've definitely never gotten THAT kind of reaction" he chuckled to himself.

Good at least he was acting cocky, my biggest turnoff. "Ha. Well as much as I would love to flatter you, I swear I didn't even see your face before I fell. You don't know me, but balance isn't really my thing. Really you could've been anyone." I smiled to myself proud that I had been able to be a semi- smart ass to Harry; he didn't need to think that he was anything special in my book.

Harry looked a little taken aback at my last comment and I couldn't help but realize, as his eyes got a little wide, how bright they were. Even in the dim lighting I could still make out the curls that hung on his forehead and the khakis and button up shirt he was wearing. He looked like a typical Chapel Hill prepster, except for the accent. I couldn't help but swoon just a little at his strong British accent; it was too cute.

"You're right," he said. "I don't know you, but I'd like to. My name is Harry"

"Um alright yeah my name is Cath—" I couldn't finish my sentence as a babbling girl came up to me and shoved me out of the way.

"Excuse me" she slurred, "He's my date tonight sweetheart; run along"

I looked at her slightly horrified. It's not like I was coming on to him in any sense of the word. Literally I was a mess. I wasn't even sure what to say to this girl who wore a tight fitting strapless dress, too much makeup, and stunk of too much perfume and alcohol combined. I glanced at Harry whose eyes were darting between the random girls and me like he wasn't sure what to say. He gave me a sort of apologetic look as he let the girl take his hand and lead him away. I stood there at the table for a moment. I looked around the room and realized that nobody was paying any attention to me. Maybe everything that had just happened had been some sort of dream or just my imagination. I turned around and glanced in the direction Harry had just walked. There he was standing with the other girl looking back at me, but only for a moment because she quickly dragged him away. I couldn't believe this. Not only had I broken rule number four by making a complete fool of myself, but I had done something I told myself I wouldn't do. I had just gotten played by Harry Styles, AND I was soaked in red jungle juice.

A/N: Harry will for sure be in the next chapter at the party. Read and definitely review, review, review! Thanks!


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